Friday, September 30, 2005

Generous Family

It seems like every time I come to St. Louis, with or without my immediate family, my mom, dad, and brother always take care of me financially. AND, I'm the one who moved out of state. My parents visited Labor day weekend and while they were there a friend from St. Louis called inviting me to a party the weekend of September 30th. After getting off the phone I said it would be nice to go. Before leaving for home that weekend my mom tried to hand me a $100 bill and said she'd sponsor my trip home.

3 weeks ago when my car had some problems my dad sent a $100 check in the mail. I waited to cash it until yesterday morning before leaving for St. Louis. He said to go ahead and use it as gas money.

When I arrived last night he bought dinner....White Castles....mmmmmm. And gave me another $25 for gas.

My mom always buys lunches, dinners, and movies if we go. My brother even pays me ridiculous amounts to mow for him or if I work for him he pays me cash.

Just saying this to say how thankful I am to have such a great family!

Thursday, September 29, 2005

Jacket Weather

Woke up this morning to GREAT weather. The temperature topped 104 degrees in the Dallas area yesterday. Yes, that's hot. Don't give me, "It's a dry heat," because it's not. I did recess duty around noon and could hardly breath. I also mowed from 5-6pm and became exhausted enough from the heat that I got dizzy. Around 6:00 you could see the cold front coming and it spit a little rain while I mowed another yard with some friends.

As we mowed mother nature put on one awesome lightning show. Some of the thickest bolts I had ever seen. Once again, no rain for my yard. We were to get multi inches of rain last weekend with Hurricane Rita headed for North Texas, but that too missed us.

So it was great to actually reach for a jacket this morning. I headed for Missouri at 9am with my 2 kids and tonight's forecast is for a low in the lower 40's.

Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free from the heat, at last.

Wednesday, September 28, 2005

Rough 24 Hours

I felt like I had my diet slightly under control until Hurricane Katrina hit and we worked a few days at church and that's about the time I got a sinus infection. Diet crashed then and I've not been able to get things under control. Maybe I blame that on being super busy with being a first year 4th grade teacher. Who knows. So I feel like I've not just a fat day or week, but a month. Then I find out yesterday that one of our bank accounts was overdrawn and we were charged 6 fees. Nothing like a 37 cent stamp costing an extra $34. Then my best friend BillyV called to confirm that he and his family is moving back to Missouri. I was really down last night.

When I got up this morning I had HUGE bags under my eyes even though I started going to bed about 10:30pm. I think it took a LONG time to fall deeply asleep. I often have trouble falling asleep if my wife is watching TV or taking a bath. Add to that a little depression.

I got to school and was not in a good mood. I put out the warning to my students. I would have loved to watched about 5 movies at the theatre today and escape, but I stuck it out.

The day got better when a friend bought me a lunch. Zero cost to me. I also purchase bagels for all the teachers on Wednesday and get repaid, but with our bank accounts at critical stage I was worried about where the money would come from. Well, someone prepaid $20 for bagels past Thanksgiving. That'll cover most of the cost, plus a few others paid early too!

I announced tonight and did a great job. Came home and graded a few papers. Blogged and will get to bed at a decent time. Hope I fall asleep quickly.

I'm going to St. Louis on Thursday so tomorrow is my last work day! SMILING!

Sunday, September 25, 2005

Hold The Ketchup

I stopped off after church to catch the end of the Rams/Titans football game at a place called Beef O'Bradys. They've got pretty good wings, but less than stellar service. For a sports bar I should never get a reply that includes, "I can't change any of the TVs, only the owner can and he isn't here." This is North Texas and none of the TVs were tuned in to the start of the Cowboys/49ers game. No wonder this place wasn't packed. The TVs that are mounted from the ceiling are 13 inch TVs too(scratching my head on this one.)

Hold The Ketchup

As I was eating my wings and watching football I noticed a guy holding the ketchup bottle and he was squirting ketchup on EVERY bite of his hamburger. I've known people to unload half the bottle on their plate and use it as dip, but never as a personal individual bite squirter.

You live long enough and you'll eventually see everything.

Wings ****
Service ****(today)
TV viewing *

Saturday, September 24, 2005

It's Called a FORECAST

The past 2 months here in North Texas have been easy to project a forecast: Sunny and 99! As the week went on and Hurricane Rita roared through the Gulf Coast it looked like the Galveston/Houston area was going to get racked pretty hard. The projected forecasts kept showing the Hurricane punching straight through the heart of Texas. With that forecast the mandatory evacuations of the towns in and around Galveston were inforced. Highway 45 north was basically a parking lot on both sides of the highway going north.

Some say mother nature, but I'll give credit to God for sparing the 4th most populated city in the US. There is a "death toll" only because a bus full of elderly needing their oxygen tanks caught fire and exploded killing more than 20.

As I came home about 4pm yesterday I could see the most westward wall of clouds that came with Hurricane Rita. At about 5pm it was directly over my house. Initial projections called for Level 1 hurricane hitting our area with 70mph + winds and heavy rain.

Well? Today it was slightly cooler, overcast, a little windy, BUT NO RAIN. We need it badly so I was hoping it would come this way. Instead, water soaked Louisiana and it's already crippled city of New Orleans will again take on extreme rainy conditions.

Hope you are safe and dry where you are.

Wednesday, September 21, 2005

Close Call

The Dodge Neon still only has forward gears. This morning I got to school about 2 minutes early, but the gas needle was bellow "E" so I decided to go about 2 blocks more to get a few gallons of gas. I wasn't 30 feet past the school entrance when a lady in a Honda CRV barreled out into the intersection and kept on coming. Somehow I slowed down, swerved without hitting the curb and honked my horn all within about 1 second. She recovered and avoided side swiping me. When I passed her I could tell she was shelled shocked because she must have slowed down to about 1o m.p.h. When I pulled into the gas station my anxiety level was running high.

Amazing how running on empty and deciding to gas up almost cost me a functioning car.

Tonight: The family was at church and after mowing a friend's yard I came home and cleaned up thinking I would go see a movie since I live near the $4.50 theatre. Sadly enough there wasn't anything worth wasting 2 hours of my time. I then decided to go and eat a burger so I stopped by a nearby gas station to pick up a copy of the USA Today newspaper. It wasn't until I got back into the Neon that I realized I pulled into a parking spot that wouldn't let me pull thru or coast back allowing me to drive away.

Humbly I had to get out of my car and push it backwards. I got back just far enough to go forward and pull away from the curb. I saw my neighbor tonight and he said he could look at it maybe Sunday and see if it is an easy fix.

Tuesday, September 20, 2005

If I could just make it to October

When school started back in mid-August I really felt if I could just get to September then things would finally slow down. It hasn't happened. Now I feel "If I could just make it to October......"

Car update: My friend and I repaired my shifter cable and I didn't really try it out until Saturday night. It now shifts into gear, but now I can't get it into Reverse. Just a small problem. Just don't park where I could get blocked in. Park in a slight incline. It has worked for 4 days now. Eventually we will see what adjustments need made.

99 degrees: What's the deal? I also thought September would bring relief in how hot the weather has been. The kids didn't get recess today because it topped 90 before noon. Indoor recess is the PITS. "If we could just make it to October......"

Isn't the Fall Equinox tomorrow and Summer is supposed to be over? I pray the heat goes away soon!

The LEAP

I couldn't take this onesided relationship anymore so I just got out. I've been treated wrong for about a year or more so it was time to hook up with someone else.

After a year and a half with tblog I've made the switch like many others have done and are doing.

You are welcome to join The MAN Fan Club just by visiting.

I hope this relationship lasts!